Dallin's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Dallin started Kindergarten today at Gattis Elementary School. He has a wonderful teacher named Miss Thompson and already has some friends in his class.
A couple of years ago, we didn't think public school would be an option. Even 1 year ago, I was leaning towards homeschooling him this year. However, he has progressed so much and grown up so much that I knew he was ready. After we checked out the school, I realized that the best thing for him right now would be the hardest thing for me. He was ready. The school is great, and I am blessed beyond reason to have him at the point that he will not only survive, but excel in a social school setting. However, the selfish side of me still does not want to believe that it is time to let him go.
He is so darling and helpful and sweet around the house. He tries so hard. I love him beyond words. It was hard to finally get him "human" just in time to send him away. The house feels very lonely without him. He was sooo excited to go to school. The smile on his face and the twinkle in his eye was priceless. He was a little nervous about school, but he was all set to go this morning. He woke up early, got dressed and announced that he was going to be "the coolest kid in school". Of course he will! Nana made sure he was set up with new Star Wars gear for school-back pack, lunch box, shirt, even Darth Vader shoes with a blinking death star. He felt like a million dollars. We made sure his lunch was packed with his favorites, his gluten free classroom snacks were ready, and we had finished his "kissing hand" to take on the first day of school to remind him of home.
Christopher and I were able to get the day off and be there to walk Dallin into his classroom on the first day. He was so excited to show daddy his "desk". He seemed cool as a cucumber, and very happy. Before we left, he made sure I gave him a big hug at his desk. I am so thankful that he still wants a hug from his mom :) We were in and out. We didn't want to prolong the goodbye and make him anxious. I managed to not shed even one tear in the school. I felt so hollow and sad leaving him behind. It was like leaving my heart. Once we were halfway to breakfast (we promised to take Kate out to "Cracker Bear"), I cried. Then when we got home, I found his ratty blanket he had left on my bed and I held it and cried some more. I am counting down the minutes till he comes home and wondering what he is doing every second. Today feels especially long. Kate was sad to see Dallin go, but has decided that not having him around during the day is "great" and she can hardly wait to have more "Kate time". I am happy that she is taking it so well, and I think she will really mature this year being the "oldest" at home.
We are all excited to pick Dallin up from school today and hear all about it. We love you our big Kindergarten boy!

Splish Splash at the Sprinkler Park

In spite of the serious water shortage, the sprinkler park is still open and we decided to take advantage of it. We typically go at least once or twice a year and I hadn't been yet this year. The kids really enjoyed it. Kate played with one little spray of water most of the time. She would sit on it, put a bucket on it, uncover it, cover it back up....this amused her for some time. Dallin found a group of older boys to run with. They are really growing up fast. Kate looks so tall to me. Those long legs just kill me. What a cutie pie.

Our First Family Trip to Sea World

On Monday, we went on our first family trip to Sea World! It was SUPER fun! We were able to go with my entire family so the kiddos got to go with Aunts and Uncles and Nana and Papa and their cousins. What a memorable experience! We left early and took a girl car and a boy car up to Sea World. By the time we got our passes and got into the park, it was about11. We went to a Beluga Whale/Dolphin show called "Azul". The kids (especially Dallin) LOVED it. They had a really funny guy come out and entertain before the show and during the show there was all kinds of acrobatics and diving in addition to the whales and dolphins. We all had "all day food passes" which were AWESOME because we could stop whenever we wanted and get as much food as we wanted at one of the restaurants. This made it easy to keep everyone satisfied and hydrated.Here is Kate eating her turkey leg that was bigger than she was. LOL She got the attention of a lot of passers-by with this sucker! She wanted it soooo bad!
While we were there, we were also able to visit the new Sesame Street Kids land Kate was a little scared of the characters even though she LOVED watching them! and ride some of the big roller coasters. The lines in the kiddie land were really bad and it was hard to wait, so it was good that they had a sprinkler park area and a huge netted playground (which I crawled all around following Kate until I thought I was going to pass out!) Dallin was tall enough for one of the big roller coasters the "Steel Eel". It kind of scared him a little (which was a new thing for him), but he recovered quickly and is already talking about going on it again.
We were also able to catch the Shamu show....always a classic. They had a baby Orca that was 1 year old and was so cute...swimming around and copying mommy. It was especially funny when it tried to "splash" the audience....it almost got some water out of the tank. LOL Dallin insisted on sitting in the splash zone and I think both kids were shocked when they were hit with TONS of ice cold salt water. They almost started crying, but since Christopher was laughing...they laughed too.
Before we left, we saw flamingos and sea lions and were also able to see some bottle nosed dolphins. Last, we stopped and saw the sharks. I think this was Dallin's favorite. He had been talking about it for days. He just sat there and watched and kept saying "Whoa!!! Look at that! Wow!" It was really neat to see the sharks, but totally awesome to watch Dallin watching the sharks.
All in all, it was a super fun day. We had so much fun being with the family and getting to do so many things. There is still so much I want to do. I am excited that we have a pass to go back again :) Yay Seaworld!

We Love the Library!

Our city has a fabulous children's library. It is one of my favorite things about living here. Their children's programs and so well organized and awesome for the kiddos (not to mention the amazing staff). They have storytime for pre-k groups as well as toddlers and even babies have their own. Not to mention the puppet shows, movies, and special events they host on a regular basis. We go to storytime every single week. My children know "their" librarian by name "Miss Jane" and have been known to chase down people who look like her in public yelling "Miss Jane! It's me!!" I think it is good for them to learn to love the library at an early age, and I am grateful to be someplace that is making that sooo very easy. Here we are getting our name tags at the beginning of storytime. Yes....Dallin is glaring at me. Every week the librarian has the children line up and tell her their name for a nametag (that goes along with the theme for the week) Older children can spell their name for her. Dallin enjoys speelling his name (and everyone else's who is with us). It is pretty impressive....until he starts to correct the librarian "You know...ONLY the first letter of the name should be capitalized...the rest are lower case so that is wrong." (Good job son...now if you could be that diligent with your own school work!) Check out our totally rockin hats on hat day storytime! Except Kate. She refused to wear a hat...not even a tiara, but she was completely willing to wear her Belle dress out in public. The children's section of the library is the ENTIRE bottom floor. They have murals, kid computer stations, some fun lil toys and the crowd favorite "giant red bathtub!" Last week, they had a community leader storytime. It was AMAZING (also totally packed...daycares and preschools have discovered our awesome library and have started coming out). They had a police officer address the kids as well as fire fighters who gave a fun presentation (with singing and a smoke limbo) and even a postal worker. It was really great!
The kiddos even got to check out the fire truck!

We LOVE our library and our awesome storytime librarians! HOORAY!

Our Son....the Pretty Pretty Princess

We'd like to take this opportunity to announce that after months of agonizing effort...trying and failing AGAIN and AGAIN through tears and tantrums.......

HE FINALLY DID IT!!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen....our son, Dallin Kellogg is
THE PRETTY PRETTY PRINCESS!!
Words simply can not describe how honored and proud he felt at this accomplishment. Kate got this game for Christmas and Dallin has played it over and over and over with her. He has REALLY wanted to be the Pretty Pretty Princess....and he loses every time. He FINALLY did it! After 3 months and countless bouts with that cursed black ring! You have never seen a child sooo happy. I think he was waaay more excited to win than Kate ever was. He was just beaming. :) So adorable. His first words upon winning "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I WON! I'M THE PRETTY PRETTY PRINCESS! My Daddy is going to be so impressed with me" (And yes, yes....he was. LOL) We love you Dallin! You will always be our pretty pretty princess.

Day 4 - Childhood Photo

So...it took some doing, but here are childhood photos of all of us. There were tons of pictures of me and the kids to choose from....so I picked Dallin and Kate's newborn and one of me at about 3 mo old. So cute! After TONS of digging, I could only locate one picture of Christopher as a kiddo to post for your viewing pleasure.

Christopher.....about 7 years old
So cute...soooo tiny. It is like someone put giant glasses on a lemon and then stuck it on a toothpick. LOL

Valerie............about 3 months old

So adorable! My hair was not really that auburn looking...it is just the film that was used. I was a super little baby. What the heck happened?

Dallin..............newborn

Complete with his natural mohawk courtesy of the double crown!

Kate.................newborn
OK...now I know I am biased, but I think Kate has one of the most beautiful newborn pictures I have EVER seen. Soooo angelic. I just love it. And this is the one they took in the hospital!

Day 3 - Favorite Movie

Day 3- Name your favorite Movie

Much like the music post, this is a hard one since it can change based on moods and such, but here is each family member's current favorite movie.

CHRISTOPHER- Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (if you don't know what it is....you passed! you are NOT a nerd!)
VALERIE- The Inheritance (a made for TV movie based on Louisa May Alcott's novel. Saw this as a teen and have loved it ever since. Hard to track down though!)
DALLIN - Star Wars I The Phantom Menace (mostly because of the pod race)
KATE- Barbie A Fashion Fairytale (We are wondering if she will switch loyalties when the NEW Barbie movie comes out)